Let's Get to Know Phrasal Verbs

 

for Teachers & Advanced Learners

Bieber et. al. (2010). Grammar of Spoken and Written English. England: Pearson Education Ltd.

Phrasal verbs are used most commonly in fiction and conversation.  There are relatively rare in academic prose. 

*Fun Fact 1: In fiction and conversation, phrasal verbs occur almost 2000 per million words.

There are 2 major subcategories of phrasal verbs; intransitive & transitive.

Transitive Phrasal Verbs

With transitive phrasal verbs, the direct object can appear between the particle and the verb.

This is the normal word order when the object is a pronoun.

               Alana turned it on.

Noun (Subject)	Verb	Pronoun (Direct Object)	Preposition (Particle)
Alana	turned	it	on

   I just thought I would point it out to you.

             The warden said that she would turn the heating on.

Transitive phrasal verbs are more evenly distributed across registers. For instance, verbs such as make up, put on, and find out are relatively common both in conversation as well as the written expository register.

 

Use in	Example
Conversation	You might find out it works.
	Some people they read the top bit and the bottom bit, and sort of make up the bit in the middle.
Fiction Writing	He put on his business suit and coat.
Newspaper Writing	I haven’t been able to put my socks on.
Academic Writing	For the modern mathematicians these numbers would make up the ordered pair.

 

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Intransitive Phrasal Verbs

In contrast, intransitive phrasal verbs don’t have any direct object.

             

         Hold on! Take this before you leave.

Noun (Subject)	Verb	Preposition (Particle)	Pronoun (Direct Object)
*You	Hold	on	None

 Oh shut up! You’re so rude.

          This kid asked if he could come along.

 Come on, tell me about the new movie, The Hobbits 2.

*Fun Fact 2: The most common intransitive phrasal verbs are activity verbs.

It is commonly used as directives and imperatives:

Get on	Look out	Move in	Step up
Sit down	Stand up	Go off	Walk in
Get out	Come over	Go ahead	Come on

*Fun Fact 3: The most common phrasal verb in any register is intransitive come on as used in conversation.

This verb has 3 major functions:

	Function	Examples
1	Exclamatory extortion to act	Come on, let Sam do it. I mean, come on, it’s a bit obvious
2	Pre-departure summons to move	Come on, let’s go. Come on, we better go.
3	Meaning ‘to start’ or ‘become activated’	The heating didn’t come on this morning. Has that just come on?